Monterey school district to switch health care insurance plans to battle soaring costs

In an effort to tackle soaring health care premiums, trustees with the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District approved plans to drop medical insurance through the state Public Employees' Retirement System and join California's Valued Trust instead.

The move is expected to take effect Jan. 1, 2014. MPUSD administrators will hold meetings with retirees in September to inform them of their options.

"At the request of the membership, we pursued other options for insurance," said Allyson Schweifler, president of the Monterey Bay Teachers Association. "Due to the nature of Monterey County, there are not many options to choose from. We decided that CVT was a good option to present to the members."

Judy Durand, executive director of human resources, said the district has been searching for alternatives to the current health insurance plan since March, soon after horrified teachers learned their premiums had skyrocketed.

Starting this year, teachers who elected health care coverage for themselves plus one family member began paying $714 in monthly premiums, almost twice what they paid the year before. For teachers who opted to cover their entire families, the climb was more than double.

A group of employees, the "benefit committee," began meeting in March. The group received presentations from the Monterey County Schools Insurance Group and other health care carriers. Last week, after receiving presentations from California's Valued Trust, the teachers association voted in favor of dropping CalPERS and joining CVT.

The difference in cost for single teachers will be negligible, Durand said, but there will be more options for employees. Options with CalPERS were limited and the system had not offered anything different since MPUSD joined in 2004, Durand said.

With CVT, teachers will have access to three basic plans, a fourth with a higher level of coverage and a "wellness plan" that gives members access over the phone for consultations with doctors about routine medical problems.

"A lot of (employees) like it, and a lot are scared to make the move," said Robert Cummings, president of the local chapter of the California State Employees Association. "But once they look into it, it'll be great. It'll save money for spouses and families."

Durand said right now she only has estimates of how much the new premiums will cost. A new schedule of costs will be prepared and distributed to members once the new insurance becomes official.

"It's going to be good for some but not for others," Schweifler said. "The greatest gains are going to be for couples. The highest hit (when the increase took place) was employee plus one."

California's Valued Trust was founded in 1984 in the Central Valley to allow participants to join efforts in lowering health care premiums, according to the group's website. It is now the largest self-funded public schools trust in the state, and its plans are run by Anthem Blue Cross or Blue Shield.

The change in medical plan comes a couple of weeks after trustees approved a 3 percent, one-time salary increase to all employees and 1 percent increases in July 2013, 2014 and 2015.